Senator Demands to Know if World Vision Is Funding Terrorism

On August 11, long-serving Senator from Iowa, Chuck Grassley, sent letters to Christian non-profit World Vision (WV) and the US Agency for International Development (USAID), asking each how they may have funded terrorism with taxpayer dollars.

The lawmaker’s inquiries principally revolve around the conviction of a WV employee, Mohammad el-Halabi, who was sentenced to 12 years in prison in Israel in August 2022, six years after his arrest. According to prosecutors, the former director of aid to Gaza diverted $50 million (USD) and additional resources meant for hungry children and farmers to Hamas. Designated a foreign terrorist organization by the US Department of State, the group has controlled the Palestinian enclave since 2007.

The humanitarian organization maintains that el-Halabi’s conviction was unjust and the Israeli court’s ruling is “in sharp contrast to the evidence and facts of the case.”

Their claims are founded on an independent forensic audit conducted by the firm DLR piper and commissioned by WV, which did not find any irregularities in the organization’s Gaza budget.

Grassley, however, is not so sure.

Accused of diverting funds to Hamas, former World Vision employee still awaits verdict

Mohammad el-Halabi believes the truth will set him free.

The former Gaza director of World Vision has now spent more than half a decade in prison, and according to his lawyer, the Israeli government has offered him plea deal after plea deal. He could potentially go home if he would only confess that funding for the Christian humanitarian aid organization was diverted to support terrorism.

But Halabi has refused.

“He is saying he will not admit to things he never did,” Maher Hanna, who represents Halabi, told CT. “He will not pollute the image of World Vision just to get a personal discount and go home to be with his children.”

Hanna, himself a Christian, said this is one of the remarkable things about this case that has not been noted in the international headlines: A Muslim man who worked for a Christian organization is refusing, under severe pressure and at great personal risk, to betray one of the largest evangelical charities in the world and harm its future work.

“We should admire that position that Muhammad is taking for himself. It’s a high Christian value,” Hanna said.

Close observers and insiders say Halabi’s trial looks like it will conclude this fall. The Israeli court could reach a verdict as early as this month.